Nude Turntable Project

I bought my TT101 as part of a "QL10", with plinth and tonearm. I usually find that I hate hate hate the sound of plinths made with MDF, and since the QL10 seems to have a layer of MDF, I took some steps to CLD it by (1) replacing the MDF-ish tonearm mount board with an alu one that is in turn bolted to another piece of alu that runs cross-wise under the plinth. Then (2) I bolted large pieces of alu to the underside of the plinth. I hoped to achieve neutrality via CLD and in the process I added lots of mass. (The weight of the plinth is about doubled.) Sadly, though, I have no idea whether this worked because of the continuing malady of my TT101.

MDF today is just timber dust that is glued together.The glue is very expensive so in the manufacturing process they put in just enough glue to stabilise the outside faces of the board. In the centre where there is very little glue there is no structural strength at all.

The Victor plinths appear to be more like the chipboard used in speakers in the 70's.This is quite different to modern MDF. From what I can see on the net the CLP2D Victor plinth appears to use layers of chipboard, and from the dark lines I can see, it would appear that they may have used layers of chipboard with each layer being veneered on both sides. The QLA7 appears to be a simplified and lighter version.

Fast foward to todays speakers - Dynaudio put forward that they can get a cleaner midrange out of MDF than plywood, but they veneer both sides of the MDF with hardwood veneer to strengthen the board.

An interesting material for plinths is Engineered Quatrz stone used in kitchen bench tops. Corian is basically a polycarbonate compound ( includes aluminium nitrate ( salt ) that is a fire retardant ). Engineered stone by comparison is around 93% Quartz stone and 7% Epoxy. It does need special blades for cutting but is much easier and less expensive than slate. Most decent bench top manufacturers use big router beds and if you draw up what you want including holes for TT, tonearm, screws etc they can cut everything for you very accurately.

Just picked up my repaired TT-101 yesterday in time for the new granite cradle.
After 3 months without it....it's like a heroin hit...💉

Lew,
I have learnt to respect the Victor engineers when it comes to all things analogue.
From their DD turntables to their tonearms to their cartridges to their pigskin mats....every product appears to have the ineffable quality of analogue knowledge and ingenuity.
I think Dover is correct in his assessment of the plinth construction they used for their quality drives.
I have just spent the afternoon at my son's place listening to the QL-A7 (now with the Empire 1000ZE/X).
There appears to be little masking or colouration to the sound compared with a 'nude' TT-81.
I might add that the turntable/plinth combination is heavy...and I mean boat-anchor heavy.
This seems to give to the sound an authority and low-frequency heft that eludes many other decks.

My advice (and my Tech's advice) to you is......get a good tech to burn out ALL the old solder joints in the TT-101 circuits and carefully re-do them.
If they have already been done.......do it again to those joints on the Power Board Circuit under all the control buttons.
An intermittent fault (or one that starts as such) is indicative of a crack or discontinuity in a solder joint.

I received the granite cradle and have epoxy'd the three Helicoil inserts into the drilled bottom holes to take the M8 stainless steel levelling spikes.
Looks quite nice..😎
Bit of a squeeze inside....
But is just as I imagined it...😏
Now for the listening tests.....